Future Tense
by JenniferJF
Summary: This is really about Amy's relationship with quite a lot of other people though technically she's the only canon character to appear. Now a series.  Also Amy/Rory and Eleven/River but only by inference  so far .
1. Long Shadows

She drifted slowly out of sleep, unsure what exactly had awakened her. After so long, the ever present hum and occasional beeping from the medical machinery surrounding her hardly even registered, let alone disturbed her slumber.

A sudden rustling in the corner caught her attention. Someone was sitting there, cast in shadows by the moonlight slanting through the room's one small window. "Hello?" she asked softly, not wanting to disturb the nurses at their station down the hall. And then, because she could just make out a cascade of hair falling across unseen shoulders, she continued, "River, is that you?"

The woman in the shadows leaned forward, letting the light fall across her features. "No, Grandmother, it's me."

"You shouldn't be here, child."

"I know. But there's somebody I wanted you to meet." Her grandaughter stood up and, moving forward, placed the small bundle she'd held into Amelia's lap. "Your great-grandson."

She gazed down at the infant in her arms. Two small perfect fists punched the air, bright blue eyes gazing up at her from beneath a patch of moss brown hair. She marveled at the feel of the baby's skin, his cheek so soft and smooth and _new_ against her own aged finger. Without lifting her eyes, she asked, "What's he called, then?"

"We've named him Rory, Nana."

This time she did look up, tears rolling freely down her cheeks as she smiled up at the younger woman briefly before turning her attention back to the infant in her arms.

And as she peered down into his face – into that shadowed reflection of all the faces she'd ever held dear and that which was uniquely _him_ – the rest of the world faded away. Became somehow unimportant. Even the alarms sounding loudly now from the walls around her.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Isn't there anyone else to call?" Abigail asked, glancing down the hall towards the room where orderlies were clearing out the last of Amelia William's belongings.

Justin looked up from where he sat at the nurses station. "No. Apparently, she hadn't any family left."

Abigail sighed and shook her head. "What a shame. No one should die alone like that. And such a nice old lady, too." Then, shaking her head again, she repeated, "What a shame."


	2. Seeing Santa

She'd been trying to avoid the place all season, but eventually she'd ended up at S&Gs anyway; there were some gifts it was hard to find anywhere else. In the swirl of holiday shoppers, though, she'd forgotten all about it until she'd turned a corner and...

There it was.

Or rather, there _he_ was.

Santa Claus, sitting in all his red-and-white glory between two sparkling Christmas trees. A long queue snaked through the store in front of him, the shrill voices of excited children filling the air, punctuated by the occasional cry of an infant or the scolding of a frustrated parent. Something twisted deep inside her at the sight and she had to force herself to breathe. Slowly. In-and-out.

She should have been there, she _and_ Rory, somewhere in that line. Because it would have been... should have been – _was,_she corrected herself firmly – Melody's first Christmas. They should have stood there in the queue with all the other parents, trying to keep her quiet through the long wait, hoping she wouldn't spit-up all over the red velvet and lace of her dress before they got to the front. Hoping she'd sit still long enough for the photographer to snap a picture of her as they sat her on Santa's lap.

Amy took another long breath and held it, forcing away the images of her baby. Replacing them with those of her daughter fully grown. She was getting good at it.

And it did help.

At least a little.

Something crashed against her legs, interrupting her thoughts and threatening to throw her off-balanced into the nearby crowd. "What the-"

"Oh! Sorry!" Amy looked down into the startled brown-eyes of the little girl who'd run into her, a cascade of loose chestnut curls bouncing across small shoulders as the child quickly took a step back and away. "Are you alright?"

Amy was nodding and opening her mouth to answer when a man's voice called out from behind the child, "Amelia?"

Both Amy and the little girl turned towards it. "Yes?" they said in unison. Looking back up at Amy over her shoulder, the child asked, "Is your name Amelia, too?"

Amy nodded. "Yes."

"Cool!" Then, turning back in the direction of the voice, whose owner, a man in his mid-forties Amy didn't recognize after all, was quickly approaching them. "Hey, Daddy? Guess what? Her name's Amelia, too."

"Really?"

The child nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, did you apologize to Amelia for crashing into her like that?"

"Yes, she did. Quite nicely, too." Amy smiled at the little girl. "Didn't you, Amelia?"

The child returned her smile before looking back at her father. "Yes, Daddy. I did."

"Good. I hope you're okay, then...?" he asked Amy, taking his daughter's hand in his, but his expression held more than simple polite concern as he looked at her over the child's head.

Feeling suddenly strangely uncomfortable under the intensity of his gaze, Amy nodded again. "Yes, I'm fine. _Really_."

"Good. Then, come along, Amelia. Let's go find your Mother and Jackson."

As her father was tugging her away, the little girl glanced back one more time at Amy. "We came here on purpose today just to see Santa," she explained. "Daddy says this is the only true Santa in the whole _Universe..._except for the one on the Planet of Christmas Trees, of course, where it's Christmas five-hundred and twenty-one days a year and the snow is actually spun sugar made by tiny alien elves, but that one's really an android so he doesn't count –"

"Amelia..." her father warned but Amy couldn't help but laugh at the child's imagination.

"Have a happy Christmas, Amelia," she said as the child's father pulled her quickly away.

"You, too... _Amelia_," the girl called back over her shoulder before being swallowed up in the crowd.

Daddy found Mummy and Jackson easily even though it seemed to Amelia like everyone else in the world must be waiting to see Santa. Which made sense, cause they probably knew the other ones were just fakes, too.

"What took you guys so long?" Mummy asked Daddy as they joined her and Jackson in the queue.

Daddy still had that same funny look on his face he'd had since talking to the other Amelia. He peered at the watch on the inside of his wrist and tapped it once before looking back at Mummy. "This is 2011, isn't it?"

"Yes, of course it is," Mummy answered.

"Why?" Amelia asked.

Daddy smiled down at her. "Because, sweetie, I'm fairly certain you just, quite literally, managed to run into your own great-great grandmother. You were named after her, you know." He tapped her on the nose. "Our own little Amelia Pond."

Amelia giggled. "Cool!" Then, looking back in the direction they'd come, she added, "Well, then, I _really _hope she has a happy Christmas, too!"


End file.
